“Daniil Kvyat was faster than Daniel Ricciardo”: Red Bull boss claims former Russian driver was more talented than 8 GP Winner

Helmut Marko revealed that Daniil Kvyat was faster than Daniel Ricciardo during his first season in Formula 1. 

Kvyat made his F1 debut in 2014 with Toro Rosso after Ricciardo was called up to Red Bull. The Russian driver finished P15 with eight points that year but Red Bull decided to give him a seat for the upcoming campaign after four-time Champion Sebastian Vettel left. Kvyat’s teammate was Ricciardo and today we all know how good Ricciardo was during his Red Bull days.

Kvyat had a decent first season with Red Bull in 2015, finishing P7 with 95 points to his name. The next year, however, he struggled and was replaced by Max Verstappen midway into the campaign. Verstappen took the sport by storm immediately, winning in his debut Red Bull race whereas Kvyat was demoted back to Toro Rosso.

According to Red Bull’s chief advisor Marko, however, Kvyat was faster than Ricciardo. This claim may come as a surprise because the honey badger went on to win seven races and finish on the podium 31 times with Red Bull over the next few years. The Ufa-born driver meanwhile managed just three podium finishes throughout his career.

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Kvyat’s insecurity led to his downfall despite being faster than Daniel Ricciardo

According to Marko, Kvyat was faster than what Ricciardo was during his first year with Red Bull. This means that he was destined for bigger things in F1. However, his own insecurity became his problem in his second F1 season.

During pre-season testing ahead of his debut Red Bull campaign, Kvyat started feeling that there was some problem with the brakes. Red Bull insisted that they took care of it, but Kvyat wasn’t convinced. This made him doubt his ability, and decreased his level of performance gradually which ultimately led to an increased number of crashes.

“You felt an insecurity,” Marko said to AMuS. “We had to react.”

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Max Verstappen ended up replacing Kvyat and taking Red Bull to new heights

Verstappen was with Toro Rosso during Kvyat’s 2015 season. A 17-year-old Verstappen was turning heads in the paddock with his performances and it was a matter of time before Red Bull called him up. As soon as Kvyat’s level dropped, the Milton-Keynes-based outfit replaced him with the Dutchman.

He immediately won hearts by becoming F1’s youngest ever race winner at 18 years old in his debut outing. Fast forward to 2022 and Verstappen has 32 race wins, 74 podiums and two World Championships to his name.